Airbus has devised a sophisticated "enhanced support" programme to ensure the smoothest possible entry into service for the A380.
Gérard Misrai, Airbus customer services division deputy vice-president, engineering and technical support, says the programme will enable the airlines and Airbus to better anticipate, and react faster to, problems. "The four main players - the airline's main base, its outstations, the Airbus support division and the suppliers' support operations - will share the aircraft data in real time and use innovative tools to process the information," he says.
He says a "virtual warehouse" will have knowledge of the spares situation at any station in real time, and will integrate the Airbus maintenance tool "Airman" and be able to interrogate the aircraft's minimum equipment list (MEL).
Misrai says that if a fault occurs en route, the system will specify whether the failure is a go or no-go item for the return flight, and the link to the virtual warehouse will enable it to identify whether a replacement component is available at the destination airport.
By linking all the parties in real time and having the ability to video-conference, "we will all be able to discuss what to do about a fault before the aircraft has landed", says Misrai.
"Airbus will make extensive use of portals to exchange engineering data from the suppliers and the operators. We will also co-locate engineers from the airline, the suppliers and the Airbus design office at our support centre to enable quick fixes to be defined for in-service issues."
The new support package will be offered to each airline for its first six to eight months of operation, as part of the introductory service. Misrai says it has already had to decline one airline's request to provide the service on a paid-for basis for the life of the A380, but does intend this to become the standard for new aircraft introductions in the future.
Source: Flight International
